A few weeks ago, Todd and Lia were walking home from the bus stop and stopped at the park for a few minutes. While Todd waited for Lia to climb and slide and release all the stress of her day, a lady approached Todd, giving him a flier to visit the church she attends. A few minutes later, another woman approached Todd and asked, "Do you go to Joyful Church?" Todd explained that someone had just given him the invitation and he had not been there before. They spoke for several minutes and she asked if she and her husband could have us over for a meal. Todd thought for a moment about how often we did this when we lived in Columbia and said to himself, "hey, why not!" and gave our phone number to the kind woman whose name is Yujin.
A couple of days later, Yujin's husband, Albert, contacted Todd and made plans for us to come over.
Albert and Yujin have one daughter, Minsaem, who is 5 years old. We went to their home on a Saturday afternoon and enjoyed a wonderful Korean meal. Like most foods, homemade Korean food is the best--especially when the cook knows her stuff! We had such a wonderful afternoon hearing each of their stories of how Jesus had changed them forever--they spoke with such gratefulness and joy.
Last week we had their family to our our home--I made pasta and didn't serve Kimchi--thankfully, they thought the meal was quite delicious and we again enjoyed a sweet time of fellowship.
We visited their church a couple of weeks ago and had a wonderful time of worship along our Korean brothers and sisters. We were warmly greeted and hugged all morning--we felt genuinely welcomed to Joyful Church!
I have told several new teachers here how incredibly valuable it is to build friendships with Koreans. It would actually be possible to live here and not have any Korean friends. The friendships that we are beginning to have with Korean nationals is extremely important and wonderful as we live in this culture and endeavor to understand it.
Todd and I are grateful for the courage Yujin had to say hello to us and the kindness that she and Albert have so beautifully shared with us.
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